Decreasing flexibility aperiodic resilient device for floors, partition walls and like building members

ABSTRACT

The device relates to the construction of buildings and prevents the transmission of any vibrations between the constitutive parts of said buildings. The device comprises an elastic corrugated band to form opposed loops filled with plastic foam, and is placed between a floor and any other part of a building where it is desirable to prevent the transmission of vibrations.

United States Fateni Barrat 51 Nov. 28, 1972 DECREASING FLEXIBILITYAPERIODIC RESILIENT DEVICE FOR FLOORS, PARTITION WALLS AND LIKE BUILDINGMEMBERS [72] Inventor: Bernard Barrat, Neuilly-sur-Seine,

France [73] Assignee: Productions FAsemes S.A., Pierrefitte, SeineSaint-Denis, France [22] Filed: April 21, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 30,464

[52] US. Cl. ..52/403, 52/573, 161/137, 161/159, 267/152 [51] Int. Cl..E04b 1/62, EO4f 15/22 [58] Field of Search ..52/393, 403, 573, 402,309; 248/21, 22; 161/39, 137, 160, 159; 267/83, 143, 81, 84, 30,152

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,576,071 11/19 5 1 Kropa eta1. ..sz/ggg 1,238,668 8/1917 Hinde ..161/137 2,622,051 12/1952Hermanson et al....161/160 X 1,778,412 10/1930 Balduf ..52/402 2,270,902l/ 1942 Rubissow ..52/403 X FORElGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,156,63310/1963 Germany ..161/137 Primary ExaminerAlfred C. PerhamAttomey-lrnirie and Smiley [57] ABSTRACT The device relates to theconstruction of buildings and prevents the transmission of anyvibrations between the constitutive parts of said buildings.

The device comprises an elastic corrugated band to form opposed loopsfilled with plastic foam, and is placed between a floor and any otherpart of a building where it is desirable to prevent the transmission ofvibrations.

7 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures 7 DECREASING FLEXIBILITY APERIODIC RESILIENTDEVICE FOR FLOORS, PARTITION WALLS AND LIKE BUILDING MEMBERS his wellknown that in the constructions of modern buildings, particularlybuildings with reinforced concrete ossature, the isolations against thenoises and the vibrations are one of the more difficult points.

In an attempt to limit the transmission of the noises between thesuccessive stories of a building, it is known to make floating floors,i.e., that between the floor itself and the concrete floor-plateprovided to receive a ground lining, it is interposed either some sand,or synthetic resin plates, or else glass or rock fibers. The handling ofglass fibers is not very pleasant for the workers, moreover, the glassfiber is not very strong and may break during its working and, when saidglass fibers are used, acoustic bridges are frequently occurring. Thesame results occurs when one uses plates made of foamed synthetic resinsincidentally, the felt isolation is satisfactory only if many layers offelt are placed which highly increases the construction cost. The sandisolation is not very efficacious because the sand is very oftenimpregnated with concrete.

Another transmission of the noises'is causedthrough partition wallswhich are generally directly anchored either to concrete posts, or tobearing walls also made of concrete, so that even in the buildingscomprising floating floors, the noises are transmitted by the ossatureand the partition walls.

The present invention obviates to the above mentioned disadvantages bymaking possible to make resilient aperiodic linkages of all theconstitutive parts of a building while always using the same devicewhich may carry important loads and which prevents the transmission ofthe vibrations whatever be their frequency. Moreover, the device of theinvention is of a low cost' and is strong which is very important on abuilding yard wherein many handlings are made.

According to the invention, the device comprises a band of resilientmaterial shaped to delimit loops having all the same width and which aresubstantially formed in a mushroom shape the head of the mushrooms beingflat and alternately directed upwards and downwards, said loops beingfurther completely filled with a cellular material delimiting twoparallel flat areas flush with said flat head of said mushrooms.

Various other characteristics of the invention are moreover revealedfrom the description which follows.

Embodiments of the invention are shown, by way of non-restrictiveexamples, in the accompanying drawmg.

FIG. 1 is a broken-away perspective view an embodiment of the flexibleisolating device of the invention.

FIG. 2 is an elevation-section view, similar to FIG. 1, of a variant ofembodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic elevation-section view showing one of theapplications of the device.

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic elevation view partly broken-away showinganother embodiment of the invention.

The device of the invention is shown on the drawings under the shape ofa corrugated band whose thickness is, for example, of about 3cm, andwhose width may vary but which, in most of the building applications iscomprised for example between 8 and cm. Said device may be of any lengthwith many devices being placed end to end without being connectedtogether or,

on the contrary, a device may be divided, for example by cutting it witha saw or shears.

The basic element of the device is made by a band 1 made of a resilientmaterial, preferably of steel. This band is corrugated to delimitsuccessive opposed loops which are designated generally by 2, 2a, 2b forthe upper loops, and by 3, 3a, 3b. for the lower loops.

With respect to the upper loops, it has been found advantageous to formsaid loops in order that they have a' plane upperside 2,, transversallyextending with respect to the device level with its upper face, thisplane upper-side being extended by two corrugations 2 2, having a radiusof curvature relatively small, for example of about 0.5 to lcm andextending on an angle of about 60, those curved corrugations being thenextended by bellies 2 2,, identical each other, and of which the radiusof curvature is substantially bigger than the radius of the corrugations2 2 The curve of the bellies 2,, 2,, may not be circular, this curvebeing calculated or chosen as a function of the general characteristicswhichare provided to the device and may, for example, be approximately asegment of paraboL' The lower loops 3 are limited by a plane bottomside3, level with the lower face of the device, said plane bottom-side beingconnected to the bellies of two successive upper loops by means ofcurved corrugations 3 3 for example of a semi-annular shape andextending according an angle of about All the space delimited by thesuccessive loops is filled with a cellular material, for example foamedpolyurethane resin, this material being flush with the plane parts 2,and 3, of the loops or, at the most, covering said plane parts on a verylow thickness and only to protect the metal or other resilient materialof the band against oxidation if this is found necessary.

Practically, it has been found advantageous for mak-' ing the loops touse an iron band having a thickness of about 1 mm and to form the loopsso that the width or distance d between the axis of an upper loop andthe axis of an adjacent lower loop be of about 50 to 60 mm whileconsidering as above explained that'said loops have'a height of about 30mm.

In the preceding, and to correspond to the embodiment shown on thedrawings, it has been used the term of upper loops and lower loops butit is obvious that the device may be placed indifferently on eitherface, the result being not modified because said device is essentiallyprovided for supporting stresses perpendicular to the plane parts 2, and3, therefore stresses towards the direction of the arrows of FIG. 1.

Obviously, when the stresses according to the arrows are low, it firstresults therefrom a distortion of the parts 2,, and 2 because of theshape of said bent parts. At any distortion of said parts corresponds avariable compression of the cellular material placed between the planeparts 3, and 2, and also an absorption of the stress by the distortionitself of said parts acting as springs. I

One sees by the preceding disclosure that a stress causes an elasticdistortion of some at least of the loops of the band 1 and that thiselastic distortion is deadened or damped in every direction by thefilling material of the loops. The device makes thus a kind ofselfdeadened or damped spring which is aperiodic i.e., which does nothave a natural frequency, and which makes it to be particularly properto absorb vibrations whatever be frequency of said vibrations.

FIG. 2 shows a variant which essentially relates to embodiment foreasily making the spring of the device. As shown by said figure, theupper loops 2 as well as the lower loops 3 are separately made and areconnected each other, level with the parts 2 and 2,, by weld spots 4.This embodiment is advantageous because the loops may be easily made bywheel-pleating, then connected together with a spot welding apparatus,.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show two important applications of the device of thepreceding figures.

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 5 is a compression floor-plate, for examplea floor-plate of a building on which are placed, several spaced devicesA according to the invention and extending on all the length or thewidth of a room. Those devices directly bear on the floor-plate 5 andare covered by a floating floor-plate 6 made of concrete or othermaterial. The distance between each device A depends on the expectedload which has tobe carried by the floating floor-plate,

Devices having. the above magnitudes given by way of examples, may carryloads of about'350 to 1,000 g/cm2 and it is from this data that thedistance separating each successive spaced devices is determined bycomputation;

Through the explanation given by the preceding, one founds that the morea device is loaded perpendicularly to its surface, the less it isproportionally distorted, since obviously this device works as a spring,the distortion magnitude of which decreases with the load.

FIG. 4 shows another application of the device of the inventionaccording to which a device 7 is placed beneath a partition wall 8 whichmay be made of bricks, plaster tiles or any other prefabricated panels,with other devices designated by reference numerals 9 and 10 beinginterposed between the partition wall 8 and posts 11 and 12. In order toensure a satisfactory anchoring of the partition wall to the posts, itis advantageous when are used devices used as shown by referencenumerals 9 and 10, to fix them firstly to said posts 11 and 12 forexample by means of gudgeons l3 and to provide also other gudgeons 14protruding towards the partition wall, said gudgeons being provided tobe embedded in said partition wall, when erected.

One sees on said FIG. 4 that the partition wall is thus resilientlyconnected to the floor 5 which may be directly constituted by thecompression floor-plate hereinbefore described, and also to the posts orto internal walls, so that vibrations which might be transmitted by saidposts or internal walls to the partition wall are deadened by thedevices of the invention and reciprocally the vibrations which may beproduced in a closed room by the partition 8 are nor transmitted to saidposts nor to the floor.

Another embodiment which is not shown on the drawings provides to usethe device of the invention between a levelling floor-plate and ananchoring and supporting bed-plate of a machine tool. This embodimentmakes possible to cancel the transmission of the vibrations or impactsproduced when said machine is working.

ICLAIMI l. Apenodlc resilient device, with a decreasing flexibility,comprising a band of resilient material shaped to delimit loops havingall the same width and which are substantially shaped as mushrooms, theheads of the mushrooms being flat and alternately directed upwards anddownwards, the upwardly and downwardly directed heads of alternatingadjacent mushrooms partially overlying one another, said loops beingfurther completely filled with a cellular material delimiting twoparallel flat areas respectively flush with said flat heads of saidmushrooms.

2. Device as set forth in claim 10, wherein two adjacent loops areconnected one to the other by a curved part making a very acute anglewith respect to the flat parts of said two adjacent loops.

3. Device as set forth in claim 2, wherein the curved part connectingtwo adjacent loops is joined to the plane parts of said loops by twoopposed arcuate segments.

4. Device as set forth in claim 3, wherein the two opposed arcuatesegments are of different radii.

5. Device as set forth in claim 1, wherein the resilient material is ametal.

6. Device as set forth in claim 5, wherein each loop is formed by aportion of corrugated iron, the loops being connected by welding,brazing, sticking and the like, substantially level with the curved partconnecting two opposed continuous loops.

7. Device as set forth in claim 1, wherein the band forming the loops iscontinuously extending along the device.

1. Aperiodic resilient device with a decreasing flexibility, comprisinga band of resilient material shaped to delimit loops having all the samewidth and which are substantially shaped as mushrooms, the heads of themushrooms being flat and alternately directed upwards and downwards, theupwardly and downwardly directed heads of alternating adjacent mushroomspartially overlying one another, said loops being further completelyfilled with a cellular material delimiting two parallel flat areasrespectively flush with said flat heads of said mushrooms.
 2. Device asset forth in claim 10, wherein two adjacent loops are connected one tothe other by a curved part making a very acute angle with respect to theflat parts of said two adjacEnt loops.
 3. Device as set forth in claim2, wherein the curved part connecting two adjacent loops is joined tothe plane parts of said loops by two opposed arcuate segments.
 4. Deviceas set forth in claim 3, wherein the two opposed arcuate segments are ofdifferent radii.
 5. Device as set forth in claim 1, wherein theresilient material is a metal.
 6. Device as set forth in claim 5,wherein each loop is formed by a portion of corrugated iron, the loopsbeing connected by welding, brazing, sticking and the like,substantially level with the curved part connecting two opposedcontinuous loops.
 7. Device as set forth in claim 1, wherein the bandforming the loops is continuously extending along the device.